Heartache
by TotalCSIfan
Summary: The family suffers a tragedy. Please read and review!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing of CSI

Heartache

"Mama. Wake up, me hungry." Johnna said as she gently patted her face.

Jackie slowly opened her eyes and smiled at the little girl.

"You're hungry? You just ate yesterday." Jackie told her jokingly.

"You funny mama. Me hungry every day." Johnna said with a giggle.

"Every day?" Jackie asked pretending to be shocked.

"Yeah." Johnna said as shook her head.

"Alright, I'll get up." Jackie told her.

Suddenly Nick snored and the little girl jumped but then burst into a fit of giggles which woke Nick up.

Nick and Jackie both then got out of bed.

"Alright Johnna, let me check on your baby sister and then I'll make you something to eat." Jackie said.

Jackie peeked in the baby's crib and she was asleep.

"Oh what a sweetheart, letting mommy and daddy sleep in a little bit." Jackie cooed at the infant as she reached down and stroked her cheek.

It was then Jackie noticed the baby felt cold.

"Hundley?" Jackie said as she touched her again.

The baby didn't stir.

"Hundley." She screamed nearly in hysterics.

"Oh God, she's not breathing." She realized in a panic.

"Nick call 911 the baby isn't breathing." She shrieked.

She immediately picked the baby up and laid her gently on the floor and then started CPR.

Nick came flying in the room with the phone up to his ear, talking to the 911 operator.

"When is the last time you fed her Jackie?" He asked.

"I fed her at 6:30, she was fine."

"Come on baby girl, breathe, please." Jackie prayed.

"This isn't working." Jackie screamed.

"Here, let me try." Nick said as he switched places with her, throwing the phone at her.

The other kids had gathered at the doorway, they had never seen anything like this, both their mommy and daddy were upset and their baby sister who they adored was on the floor and to them it appeared Nick was hitting her, which of course he wasn't.

"Get someone here now." Jackie screamed into the phone.

"They're on there way ma'am."

Jackie glanced back over at Nick and the baby, Nick was still doing CPR but he wasn't having any more luck then she did.

Help might arrive too late.


	2. Chapter 2

The paramedics arrived and rushed the baby out the door.

Jackie rode with her while Nick called Greg and asked him to babysit the other kids since he lived the closest out of anyone they knew and trusted.

Greg got there within just a couple minutes and as soon as he did Nick bolted out the door and sped to the hospital.

"Jackie? Have they said anything?" He asked as she was sitting on a bench in the hallway.

"No." She said quietly.

He sat down next to her.

"She was cold Nicky, this is bad, very bad, I think she was already…." She couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence, tears cascaded down her face.

Nick wrapped his arm around her, he wanted to reassure her but he'd been thinking the same thing, but how on earth could he tell her that?

"Mr. and Mrs. Stokes, I'm Dr. Leon."

"How is she?"

"Let's come back into a little room and we'll talk alright."

Nick and Jackie both knew what that meant. Nick thanks to all his years as a CSI had gotten very good at reading people and he could read this doctor's body language, this was bad, he knew it.

"Honey I'll go, you stay here." He told Jackie, trying to spare her from what he was almost certain they were about to hear.

Jackie was tempted to let him, but she didn't want him to face this alone.

She stood up with him, he grabbed her hand and together they went into the back room with the doctor.

They sat down.

"I'm very sorry to have to tell you this but she didn't make it, we did absolutely everything we could but we couldn't bring her back, I'm so very sorry for your loss."

Nick gripped Jackie's hand tighter and hung his head.

"NOOOOOOO." Jackie shrieked, so loud that it made patients in the nearby waiting room jump.

Nick threw his arms around her.

"I'm sorry sweetie, I'm so sorry."

Nick thought back to the doctor's last sentence "I'm so very sorry for your loss." He thought about all the times he had uttered that sentence to victim's families over the years, and he knew now that those words, though very well intended, did absolutely nothing to ease their pain.

TBC…


	3. Chapter 3

"I want to see her." Jackie told the doctor.

"Ok, follow me."

The doctor led them to another room and gently placed the tiny, cold, lifeless infant in Jackie's arms.

"Baby girl wake up please, please wake up." Jackie begged with tears streaming down her face.

She patted the baby's arm gently as if she expected it to work. When it didn't she gently started tapping the baby's face.

"Hundley wake up sweet girl. Please." She wailed.

The doctor took the baby from her arms.

She turned towards Nick and collapsed her head on his shoulder.

He wrapped his arms around her.

"I'm so sorry Jackie." He whispered in her ear.

"I want to die, I want to die, I want to die." She wailed, each time she said it her voice rose higher.

"No you don't sweetheart, I need you, and the kids need you, Jasmine, Houston, Johnna, Karlie, and Sloan need you, you are their world, they love you, and they need you, I want you to focus on them right now alright." He said as he looked her in the eyes, wiping a tear off of her face.

"It's all my fault, it's all my fault, it's all my fault." She kept repeating over and over.

TBC…


	4. Chapter 4

"It's not your fault, it's not Jackie. Jacks?"

Jackie slowly opened her eyes, she saw Nick leaning over her as well as Houston.

Houston was staring at his mother with a mix of concern and fascination.

"Where am I?" Jackie asked quietly.

"You at home mama. You crazy?" Houston asked her, clearly thinking she had completely lost her mind.

"It was a dream?" Jackie asked, barely above a whisper.

She bolted out of bed and raced into the baby's nursery. She looked into the baby's crib and was horrified to discover she was gone.

"Where's Hundley?" She screamed.

Nick and Houston ran into the room.

"She's downstairs in her swing, she's fine. Are you alright?" Nick asked her, now he too was concerned about her.

She didn't answer him she raced out of the room, nearly knocking both Nick and Houston down as she did so.

Down in the living room just as Nick had promised was Hundley, sitting in her swing.

Johnna sat next to the swing appearing to be teaching the baby about the different sounds animals make, using a cute children's book as a guide.

Jackie raced over to the baby and picked her up, the baby squealed happily.

"Mama, put her back in dere, me read her a story." Johnna said pointing at her swing, sounding very annoyed that her story had been so rudely interrupted.

"I'm sorry sweetheart." Jackie said as she returned the baby to her swing.

Jackie took a seat on the couch so she could hear the rest of the story.

"Dis Hundy is a moo cow, it say moo." Johnna said as she pointed to a picture of a cow in the book.

Johnna then turned the page.

"Dis is a dog Hundy, like Dolly, it say Roof. Talk Dolly." Johnna said as she looked at the dog, who was lying in the middle of the floor.

Instead of barking like Johnna had requested Dolly rolled over.

"Bad Dolly." Johnna scolded.

Jackie stifled a laugh.

"Speak Dolly." Jackie told the dog.

The dog barked which caused both Johnna and the baby to erupt in a fit of giggles.

Dolly then got up and left the room and Jackie knew right where she was headed too, the treat cupboard.

Jackie chuckled and got up and got her a treat and then went back into the living room.

"The story is done Hundy." Johnna said after she had read the last page.

The baby started to get fussy.

"There no more Hundy." Johnna said growing frustrated that the baby didn't understand that there were no more pages to read.

"It's alright sweetheart, I'll take over." Jackie told the little girl as she picked the baby up.

"You are so nice to read to your sister Johnna Marie, and you are a great teacher. Do you want to be a teacher like mommy when you grow up?" Jackie asked.

"No." The little girl replied.

Jackie smiled at her.

"What do you want to be?" Jackie asked her.

"A daddy." Johnna replied without missing a beat.

"A daddy?" Jackie asked.

"Yeah." Johnna said with a smile before leaving the room.

" _Good luck with that goal kiddo."_ Jackie thought to herself silently.

Her kids were hilarious and she loved them more than they'd ever know!

The End!


End file.
